Record-breaking highs for Piping Live! - National Piping Centre

This year's Piping Live! festival was a record-breaking event, drawing thousands of performers and spectators from across the globe to Glasgow for a week-long celebration of Scotland's national instrument.

Now in it's 22nd year, Piping Live! adopted a different look, with a brand new site created at the National Piping Centre - the bustling hub of the festival - that boasted a variety of performances, events and activities across multiple stages.

For the second year running, we managed all things media, planning and executing a mix of digital and offline media over a 3-month period.

With a focus on Glasgow and Edinburgh, we launched a series of OOH placements through a phased approach, ensuring peak periods were covered throughout summer. Activity was increased in the two-weeks prior to the festival to maximise awareness as the event drew nearer, whilst capitalising on the huge tourism influx across the Central Belt in early August.

Digital played a significant role, using key learnings from last year's campaign, paired with additional prospecting audiences and remarketing routes. Meta activity reached 361,860 unique users with support from Google helping earn a total of 1,421,903 impressions across digital.

Engagement across Meta proved strong, with key audiences achieving a CTR of 4.10%, and remarketing maintaining the engagement cycle with a CTR of 2.53%.

From the festival launch in May through to a post-festival wrap-up, we supported the event with a range of PR activity, securing coverage across web, television, radio and print.

From digital coverage of the festival's brilliant Big Band launch gaining over half a million views on The National's Facebook page to Artistic Director, Finlay MacDonald, featuring on BBC News at Seven, we helped spread the word of this year's elevated Piping Live!

To showcase a true hands-on experience, we welcomed respected CBS news presenter, Holly Williams, and her team to cover the event as part of a larger programme on the global popularity of piping. Taking her on a guided tour of the National Piping Centre's museum, led by Steven Blake, Director of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland, Williams was invited to embrace the music and try piping herself.

A little closer to home, we welcomed Glasgow-based lifestyle creator and family influencer, The Olive Tree Family, who shared their visit with their 100,000+ audience across Instagram and TikTok.

The combined effort helped deliver the biggest Piping Live! yet and with a record-breaking debut of the new festival site, there's no limit to what next year could bring.